


Waybread and Pain Dur

by dark_pookha



Category: Original Work
Genre: Community: HPFT, Cooking, Dwarf, Elf, dwarfish bread, elvish waybread
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 02:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19984261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dark_pookha/pseuds/dark_pookha
Summary: Take a cup of dwarfish nature, mix it with a cup of elfish upbringing and a dash of magic and what do you get?For TreacleTart's Play With Your Food Challenge





	Waybread and Pain Dur

"Mr Oresmelter, could you please come to the front of the class and explain what this is?" the tall, elven instructor asked.

The stout, red-bearded dwarf stood from his bench and table, made sure to stop his enchanted mixer, and approached the instructor's desk. He took the proffered baguette and held it up to his face quizzically.

"Sir?" he asked, puzzled.

"Explain what this is, please." The instructor gestured at the bread.

"It's the waybread you asked us to make, sir," Björn said.

"Not to me, to the class." The instructor turned Björn to the class and sighed quietly.

Björn looked again at the bread, then at his classmates, elves, every one. He'd always felt out of place, always singled out by the instructors; after all, he was the only dwarf in the Fair Isle School of Magical Cookery; the only dwarf on the Fair Isle, actually.

"This is my elven waybread, mixed according to the recipe set down by Nathaniel Silverleaf two thousand seven hundred and sixty-six years ago. It was baked according to the recipe's directions and then enchanted with wards of freshness and well-being." He held it proudly in front of him, like a club.

"And did the instructions say to shape it into a baguette?" the instructor asked.

"No sir, the instructions said to lay it out in a toroidal pan so that it was heated evenly on all sides." Björn turned to the instructor, who turned him back to the class forcefully.

"Then why, pray tell, did you form a baguette?"

"Well, sir, I don't own a toroidal pan and I knew that a baguette would also heat evenly, except around the ends, so I made sure to cover them with alchemical foil during the last ten minutes of baking. It conforms to the correct coloration on the chart, middle golden-brown, so I don't see the problem here, sir." Björn waved his bread.

The instructor snatched it out of Björn's hands and banged it hard into his desk. It made a dull thud and splinters of wood flew off the corner of the desk where the bread had struck it. The instructor laid it on a cutting board on his desk and tried to slice it with a knife. When it didn't slice, he tried stabbing it. The tip of the knife snapped and spanged off a young elf's mixing bowl in the front row.

"Do you see the problem now, Mr Oresmelter?" The instructor took the loaf and handed it back to his student.

"I assure you, I did everything according to the book, sir, it should be quite edible." Björn wrapped a hand around each end of the baguette and his arms corded as he snapped it in half. He then ripped a piece of the still-steaming bread from the torn end and popped it in his mouth. He immediately spit it back into his hand and blew on it.

"Sorry, sir, it's still hot inside," he said as he continued to blow on it.

The instructor yanked one of the half-loaves out of Björn's hands and sniffed it. He then tried to rip a piece of it off and failed. Björn saw his struggles and pulled a piece off his half-loaf for the instructor. The instructor took it, cooled it with a spell and then popped it in his mouth. His crunching was audible even to the back of the room

Björn had finally finished blowing on his piece and also ate it noisily.

"I must admit that it tastes perfect," the instructor said. "I can taste the sunshine that fell on the wheat and the perfect toasting you got on the rosemary and thyme before you mixed them. I can feel the love that you gave to the mixing and your attention to making sure that it was crafted according to ancient lore." He banged his half on the table again.

"Why, then, is it so hard?"

Björn's partner, a willowy blond elf girl stood and then spoke up. "Sir, I believe it's inherent in his magic."

"Explain," the instructor said.

"We elves get our magic from nature, from the sun and stars, the natural springs, the trees and ground. When we make food, we are able to taste where it was grown and how it lived. When we eat an animal we take in some of its soul. I believe that because Björn's magic comes from a different part of nature that his food will taste different. It will have the soul of where he comes from instead of where the ingredients came from."

"That is partially correct," the instructor said. "If he did the magic properly, then the food would taste of where it came from, and it does. The issue is not taste; Mr Oresmelter gets full marks for that. The issue is the hardness of the crust. I believe you are correct about the why, but not the specifics of the how."

She sat.

The instructor pressed his hands together, concentrated, and a bright light shone from between them. As he spread his hands, a flat loaf of elven waybread appeared between them.

"This is not a shortcut you should take often," he said, "as it will degrade the ingredients, leaving an inferior product, but there is not time enough left in class to do it properly."

He handed the loaf to Björn.

"Now, Mr Oresmelter, I want you to cast your wards of well-being and freshness and we will see where the problem lies."

Björn sat the loaf on the corner of the desk and started to chant in elven. He started with the ward of freshness as the instructions had stated. He finished it quickly, confident that he had done it correctly.

The instructor poked a corner of the bread and it indented slightly, then sprang back over a few seconds.

"Very good, Mr Oresmelter. Now the ward of well-being, if you please?"

Björn nodded. He reached out senses to nature; he felt the trees outside and the herbs growing in the gardens. It was sprinkling lightly and he felt the small dew-drops of rain hitting the leaves. He tasted the fresh air of the enclave. He felt the insects and worms in the ground, that were all part of keeping the soil aerated. He felt the plants breathe (he hadn't known plants breathed until he came to the enclave, a lost dwarf alone in an elven land). He felt the roots reaching down and his spirit followed them. He went further and felt the bedrock way under the soil and it comforted him; gave him strength. He poured all of that nature into his spell. When he had finished, the instructor picked up the bread again and pounded it on the table. It made the same dull thud as Björn's baguette had.

"You reach into your nature to cast the charm of well-being, but not so much for the charm of freshness, is that so?"

Björn nodded.

"That is why your bread has the improper consistency for elven waybread. As Miss Fairhope said, your nature is of rock and stone. When you cast spells that need your nature, you tap into them. But, you also tapped into your elven upbringing. If you can continue to mix your natures, you will be a sorcerer of unmatched potential. Be true to your nature, but also try to keep absorbing ours."

He then held up the new loaf.

"Could anyone tell me what Mr Oresmelter actually made here?"

A boy a row behind Björn's partner stood. "Sir, I believe he made dwarfish pain dur, but with elven flavoring."

"That is correct, Mr Golden," the instructor said smiling. "But it also has qualities unique to each. This bread will keep for a much longer time than our waybread and it will also taste good. Have any of you ever tasted traditional dwarfish pain dur?"

Everyone shook their heads except Björn.

"Mr Oresmelter, what does dwarfish pain dur taste like?"

"Rocks, sir, rocks."

"Full marks, Mr Oresmelter. Class is dismissed once you turn in your projects."


End file.
